The use of palletized trucking systems is not new. Such a system includes a vehicle having a bed, a number of pallets removably positioned on the bed, and a forklift truck for placing the pallets on the bed and taking them off the bed.
Such a system is used by individually loading pallets with articles such as gas-filled tanks under pressure. A forklift truck is then operated to transport each pallet individually to the vehicle and then load them onto its bed.
It has been found that the employment of such a system has resulted in substantial savings in time and reduced personnel to load and unload. A plurality of tanks can be loaded onto each pallet in the distributor's plant. The vehicle may then be loaded with the pallets very quickly. This is in distinction to the older practice of individually loading tanks onto the truck bed. While the vehicle is then traveling to a customer, additional pallets may be loaded at the distributor's plant for future shipment. A given vehicle can make many more deliveries per day. At the destination, a forklift truck rapidly unloads the loaded pallets from the truck and delivers them into the customer's plant. Full tanks are used by the customer as needed and are replaced on the pallets by empty tanks. Again, the time for unloading is substantially reduced over that required individually to roll off tanks from a truck bed. Also, employment of such a system reduces handling of the tanks.
While this development is not new, presently known systems have not been entirely satisfactory. First, the operator of the forklift truck must become rather skilled in loading the pallets onto the truck. Even with such skill, he must exercise care so as to align the pallet with a chosen bay, and then lower the pallet into such bay. If he is not careful, the pallet will strike the dividers provided between adjacent bays, and he will then have to shift the truck and try again. Such a procedure is both time-consuming and because not designed to strike the dividers, the pallets and the articles carried thereby may become damaged.
Another shortcoming of presently available systems is the requirement that the pallet be substantially horizontal as it is being lowered into a chosen bay. Otherwise, it would be most difficult for the operator to align the pallet vertically. In other words, the operator must align all four corners of the pallet respectively with the four corners of the bay.
Since the pallets are carried by a moving vehicle, they are subject to being jostled during transportation to the destination. The pallets of certain systems are not sufficiently secured in place while the truck is in motion to prevent them from being dislodged as the result of a sharp turn. Should a pallet fall off the truck, both the pallet and the articles carried thereon will be subjected to damage and, of course, serious injury to a passer-by or damage to another vehicle could result.
Sometimes a latching means has been provided to protect against unintentional dislodgment. However, these mechanisms are manually actuated, so that a forgetful operator or a lazy operator may simply not latch the latching mechanism.
The vehicles of presently known systems often have a solid bed so as to collect snow and, add additional weight to the vehicle. Also, such beds undesirably furnish but a single level of support for the pallets.